WELCOME
ABOARD

A welcome to new commissioners

As a newly elected commissioner, you'll find there are a lot of people ready to help you learn your job. Your fellow commissioners want you to become productive, of course, and they'll be aided by your full-time or part-time staff.

Our association—the Illinois Association of Park Districts—offers a variety of services to help. If you attended the seminar for new commissioners at Pheasant Run, you've already had an exposure to the laws that control us, to the intricacies of government finance, to community relations, to board-staff relationships, and so on. That was just one of the Association's services. The magazine you're reading will come to you six times a year as a part of your district's membership. The magazine also serves the professionals in parks and recreation. While you're the employer and they are employees, you'll find we face many common problems—and above all, we all share the same goal to provide useful parks and wholesome recreation for all the people. The same articles that appeal to them will be of interest to you, and vice-versa.

Other seminars are coming up later in the year. And the conference in November in St. Louis will offer over three days of education sessions, exhibits, and a chance to talk shop with commissioners and staff from all over the State. After a while, you'll realize how important the legislative activity of the Association is; it's a constant effort to improve the laws we work under so that each district can provide better and better service.

An association like ours depends upon volunteers. The small paid staff can't begin to do all that must be done. After your feet are on the ground in this new job of yours and you figure out how you can help, don't wait for us to find you— call us and tell us what you'd like to do.

On behalf of all the officers—welcome aboard!

Illinois Parks and Recreation    5    May/June, 1971